Opinion: Herd mentality can escalate the frequency and intensity of attention-seeking behaviour, especially in an interactive public space like the Portal
Dublin's innovative on-street sculpture, 'The Portal', which is visually linked-up in real-time to another portal in New York City, is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. The state-of-the-art installation, created by Lithuanian artist Benediktas Gylys, gives people the ability to interact with each other from opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean. But instead of just being a site for curiosity and cultural interaction, it has also become a hotspot for some "inappropriate" and, arguably, offensive behaviour.
In a statement, Dublin City Council said the "overwhelming majority of interactions are positive" but "a very small minority of people" had been engaged in the "inappropriate behaviour". There were reports of people exposing body parts, making inappropriate gestures and showing pornography.
In response, the stream has now been limited to specific hours of operation, running from 6am to 4pm in New York City and 11am to 9pm in Dublin. To prevent people being able to step on the portal or hold up phones, a "proximity-based solution" has been implemented, where "if individuals step on the Portal and obstruct the camera, it will trigger a blurring of the livestream for everyone on both sides of the Atlantic."
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, Portal between Dublin and New York restarts after being paused due to inappropriate behaviour
But instead of rushing to shut down and prevent the behaviour, this is the perfect opportunity to think about what could be causing people to behave like this, and to analyse people's relationship with technology.
The presence of a live stream can act as a stage for attention-seeking behaviour, whether for the benefit of immediate peers or the unseen audience on the other side of the portal. This need for recognition, even if negative, is about being noticed. This herd mentality can escalate the frequency and intensity of such actions, especially in an interactive public space.
In his ‘‘Group Psychology’’ paper (1921), the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud identified that when someone is part of a group, the individual acquires a sense of power, allowing them to act on impulses that they would otherwise have to curb as an individual. This can also be connected to how people use social media, where there is a perceived veil of anonymity. This can then facilitate people to say or write comments online that they would not say in person, making individuals feel less accountable for their actions.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Brendan O'Connor, historian Liz Gillis talks to Brendan about the receptions given to public art in the Capital City in the past
Rather than the technology or the positive interactions, such as school children playing games of rock, paper, scissors, getting the attention, it is the questionable behaviour that is dominating discourse on radio and on social media. What does this say about the us, the public who are arguably more attracted to the negative than positive stories? It's worth mentioning that 'clickbait', as a strategy of viral journalism, seeks to lure users into clicking on digital content by triggering core emotions such as fear, anger, or jealousy.
One of the more unpleasant occurrences happened when someone on the Dublin side of the Portal showed clips of 9/11 from their phone, streamed to the New York side of the portal. How can we begin to interpret what seems like an aggressive act? We can talk about experiences of social disconnection or alienation, where individuals might feel isolated or disenfranchised, and the portal, symbolising a connection to a distant, possibly idealised place like New York City, might exacerbate feelings of jealousy, prompting some to act out as a form of protest or expression of their discontent.
But can we really equate this "inappropriate" behaviour with anti-social behaviour? Some of these acts were indeed tasteless but seem more thoughtless than anti-social. Maybe it was people, at some level, looking for points of reference and engaging in the project and socialising.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's, Drivetime, is it humorous or humiliating behaviour, on this side of the Dublin-NY portal?
The Danish existentialist philosopher Søren Kierkegaard said, "people demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use". The truth is people respond to art in different ways. Maybe the Portal is performing its role, as art can allow people to express themselves in all their idiosyncrasies, to bare all in an attempt to communicate and connect with others.
Is censoring material not contrary to the organisers' goal of opening "a window between faraway places and cultures that allows people to interact freely with one another"? This is an art project after all, and imposing rules or coercion will inevitably invite and drive some individuals to act out against them.
Freud also spoke about how humour and jokes say something in a controlled way, that certain social circles have suppressed or forbidden, and in the release of tension comes the nervous laugh. This is exemplified beautifully in how some in Dublin reacted to the temporary close of the portal, when flowers were left at the Portal with the message saying "RIP The Portal 8th- 14th of May 2024" and in small writing underneath it said "Sorry we mooned you".
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
